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Washington, D.C.—Despite some modest changes by the Senate, the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) remains steadfast in its opposition to legislation that would allow private sector debt collection companies to collect tax debts, NTEU President Colleen M. Kelley said today.

“While the legislative changes are a modest step in the right direction toward providing debt collector accountability,” she said, “we’re disappointed that a provision allowing private companies to collect taxes on commission cleared the Senate.”

She added: “NTEU is certain that the most efficient and cost-effective way to increase tax collections is by using the employees of the Internal Revenue Service.”

The NTEU leader offered her comments after approval last night by the Senate of a corporate tax bill. It includes a program of tax debt privatization with a five year termination date and provisions for reports to Congress on the tax collection activities of private sector debt collectors. The House version of the corporate tax bill does not contain the tax debt privatization proposal.

Private sector tax debt collection was tried in by the IRS in 1996, Kelley said, with disastrous results, including harassment of taxpayers. A planned follow-up program in 1997 was cancelled.

“What was true then is true now,” she said. “Privatizing the function is not only the most inefficient way to collect tax debts, it puts private and sensitive taxpayer information at unacceptable risk by making it available to the most complained-about industry in America—debt collectors.”

Kelley noted widespread dissatisfaction among the public with the idea of privatizing tax collections, as reported in a nationwide poll last year. “Americans are keenly aware of the erosion of their privacy in so many ways,” the NTEU president said. “They made it clear they don’t want their personal tax information in the hands of private companies, and particularly in the hands of debt collection agencies.”

NTEU is the largest independent federal union, representing some 150,000 employees in 29 agencies and departments, including nearly 98,000 in the IRS.